I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to home entertainment devices and particularly to color video image generation and display simulating an artist's painting.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Video graphic display devices are well known in the computer arts. Relatively sophisticated graphic display devices which interface with large or medium-sized computers through a keyboard have long been employed, and they find wide application in data processing and information display. However, the expense and sophistication of the computer-based systems with which graphic display devices have been employed as well as the sophistication and data storage requirements believed to be necessary to generate video displays, especially color video displays, has substantially limited use to scientific, technical and commercial applications, such as graphic design and information retrieval.
Relatively inexpensive interactive video display devices have recently been introduced for home and arcade entertainment. A representative patent describing the technology is U.S. Pat. No. Re. 28,507, dated Aug. 5, 1975. Microprocessor-based video entertainment devices have also been developed for home and arcade entertainment including color display features. However, such entertainment devices embody a design philosophy exclusively directed to the implementation of simulated competitive games, usually involving the striking of a moving object such as simulated tennis, hocky, football, baseball and warfare. To date, no system has been designed which permits a human user to remotely paint a multi-color video image from a font of user-mixed colors in the manner of a brush artist.